The Great Heusinkveld CORE Exodus Has Arrived!

Heusinkveld CORE Motorsports announced today on twitter that six of their seven drivers have departed from their team. Kay Kaschube, Alexander Vos, Nils Koch, Laurin Heinrich, Andre Boettcher and Moritz Lohner have left Angelo Michel as the only driver left at the team.

To say this move came out of left field would be a complete understatement as just two hours after claiming victory in the NEO Endurance Series 24 Hours of Le Mans, the German team who in 2016 were a solitary point away from collecting the inaugural VRSGT title have been completely torn apart. This was a team which was a very close group, highlighted by the fact that very few people joined and very few people left.

As happy as we are for our weekend performance we are very sad to announce that Alexander, Kay, Nils, André, Laurin and Moritz will leave the team. We want to thank them what they have done for us and wish them the best of luck for the future!

What has become even more unclear though is the destination for these six drivers because by the nature and the look of the move, I can see so many similarities yet differences with what happened with Iberica Racing Team just a few months ago. However with the solidarity of the team, I can’t see the drivers splintering off in the same way as Iberica did, more rather I expect the six drivers to stay as a unit, form their own team or get sucked into an already existing team to create a superpower.

I doubt that Redline and Coanda or even FA Racing G2 could make something happen however with simracing drawing more and more, there is no end to where this could end up. Red Bull may want to come in after opening up their own gaming lounge in London, however as is often rumoured, Fnatic have the potential to join whenever they want along with a whole host of other teams waiting in the wings.

The drivers aren’t any drivers though. Moritz Lohner for example is the only driver of the group in the iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series while Laurin Heinrich spent the majority of last year racing in German Formula 4. Kay Kaschube has for the longest time been viewed as Heusinkveld’s response to Maximilian Benecke while Alexander Vos and Nils Koch both have storied success through VRSGT. Andre Boettcher is an ex-IWCGPS driver and has raced at the pointy end of the field with the likes of Greger Huttu and Martin Kronke in the past, proving just how strong he can be on his day.

The question remains now on what Heusinkveld do from here, especially with just Angelo Michel left, a fast up and coming driver who could easily catch the eye of any simracing team out there, pretty much putting himself as the hottest property in simracing right now.

Whatever these six are getting involved with, what I can say for certain is that wherever these drivers go, this will change the simracing landscape, very similar to what will happen with Fabrice Cornelis and Coen Klopman who both left Vendaval Simracing earlier this week.

Ultimately though, the dynamic of simracing has completely changed, and nobody will know for certain just how the massive shifts of the tectonic plates in 2018 will affect simracing even six months down the line. I am very disappointed to see Heusinkveld CORE Motorsports crumble in this way, they now have two options. Revival or history.